Istralar
4th of Abadius, 5627 EA
Scope
The motivation behind building Istralar
Istralar is a world created originally for the Pathfinder 1st Edition RPG, with the intent being to also allow novels and games to subsequently be set within its borders. It indulges my passions for history, geography, magical realism, and pure shenanigans.
The goal of the project
The intent is for Istralar to feel like a comprehensive world in which many different stories can be told, and indeed have been told. It is intended to be grand in scope and to hold different eras in which different legends have risen and fallen. I hope that my players enter Istralar and can find what they wish in its realms, whether that be the ridiculous joy of gnome punting or the bittersweet tragedies wrought by the Shards of the Void.
Istralar's Unique Selling point
Istralar was once a world like many others, but millennia of progress and magic have wreaked havoc across its surface. Many are ignorant of the dangers festering around them, but little do they realise that their world is steadily crumbling around them - that the leylines carry ancient, bitter threats, that the blood of their destroyed sister-world Terra Arcana still poisons their surface, that the magic sowed into the planet by ancient wars still maligns their homes.
As technology advances and distant civilisations begin to reach the planet, so too does it begin to show the first traces of the strain that threatens to consume it...
Theme
Genre
Istralar is a fantasy world at its core. It leans towards dark, epic fantasy, with notes of science fantasy in some parts of the world and regular ventures into other genres at different points in its timeline and story.
Reader Experience
Istralar, at its core, is a world of magical mysteries. Readers, expect to find stories both hilarious and dark within these pages. There is much beauty in this world, but where there is beauty, there too is sorrow. There can be no bright heroes without encroaching darkness, and that is something that permeates most every page: mystical fantasies with their silver linings etched on cold steel.
Players, expect the most wild adventure of your lives. There will be love, and in that love, angst. There will be laughter, and behind it, trauma. There will be beautiful, touching moments we will hold close for years - and there will also be moments where one of you has just shot another in the arse, or told a thunderbird to go fuck itself, and those too will linger.
Reader Tone
Istralar is a darker world, with strong moments of brightness. It is not as dark as a FromSoftware title might be, but the world does not shy away from realistic interpretations of war and illness, nor does it ignore the implications of technological progress or magic and their impact on society.
Recurring Themes
Truth, magic, and dreams. Mortal strength versus divine authority.
Character Agency
Campaigns in Istralar revolve around the actions of players. Every action you make will send ripples through the world; inviting one kind NPC to spend the night may avert a possible antagonist later on, for instance. NPCs live their own lives outside of the party and make their own actions, of course, but the party has a definite impact beyond that of any other character.
Focus
Drama
The Shards of the Void exist and are corrupting and consuming all of reality. What happens with those?
Riven Drast is setting out to redefine society by force, using the Spiritblade to aid he and his Drastic Reformers. Elias seems to be helping.
The Aletheian Empire and the Medimian Empire are at war.
Psychic Magic has begun to manifest.
Champions of the Divine have begun to appear.
Istralar is a private campaign setting written & run by Hanhula for the Lost Ones. Please do not take & use any content found here for your own works; many years of effort have been put into the words you read here. Istralar is protected under the Copyright Act. Legal action may be taken if this is infringed.
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